The Israeli military says it is carrying out overnight strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, while the Syrian Arab News State Agency or SANA is reporting that the country’s air defences have shot down “hostile targets”.
“We have started striking Iranian Quds targets in Syrian territory. We warn the Syrian Armed Forces against attempting to harm Israeli forces or territory,” Israel’s military said in a statement in the early hours of Monday.
The Quds Force is in charge of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ overseas operations. Iran is a major backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his forces in the country’s long-running war.
News agency reports quoted witnesses in the Syrian capital, Damascus, as saying that loud explosions rang out in the night sky.
The attack followed cross-border attacks on Sunday in which Syria said it repelled an Israeli air attack.
Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired at the occupied Golan Heights.
“We have a permanent policy, to strike at the Iranian entrenchment in Syria and hurt whoever tries to hurt us,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier.
The Israeli army also said a popular winter tourist site on Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights would be shut for the day. It added that otherwise things remained “routine” along the frontier with Syria.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
